I have now been a consistent Twitter user for 12 months and in that time I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some rather wonderful people from different backgrounds who have had similar interests to myself and who have gone on to become people I would call friends. Below are a list of 10 people I have added to Twitter over the last 12 months, and without knowing beforehand made 2009 a much better experience online. These people all remained consistent, helpful and most importantly, informative.

They are in alphabetical order.

@bradgallaway / Brad Gallaway / Games Critic writer
Brad Gallaway is the epitome of a gentleman. Polite, interesting and never overly aggressive on delivering opinions on matters. He is someone who can hold a conversation on many different matters and despite being a games reviewer, conversation between us just as often revolves around food as it does on gaming matters. Brad Gallaway is someone I will always have the time of day for, he is not just a great online personality to follow, but a brilliant person too.

@Dits / The Gamer Scene
Not a lot is known about ‘Dits’, one of these is his name which is a highly regarded secret. Dits is one half of the very good The Gamer Scene (TGS) podcast and a certified PC enthusiast. One of the major forces behind TGS and an incredibly hard worker for the Unified Gamers Network, Dits has my complete respect as an individual. Whilst he is still catching up on realising why console gaming is where gaming is really at, he’s very interesting and knows his stuff about games so I find it hard to criticize him… Too much.

@JohnusMaximus / John Cranston / Halo Fanatic
John is a certified Halo nut which obviously caught my attention immediately, especially with myself feeling very much the same way, but he’s also into Achievements and a wide range of games making him one persons posts I never miss on Twitter. Johnus Maximus is another one of The Gamer Scene bunch of people who I’ve come to know quite well and like all those I’ve come to know from there, friendly, knowledgeable and of course, it really helps he loves Halo.

@KarenKnowsBest / Karen
I remember completely disagreeing with something Karen said in regards to Big Brother in one of my few hashtag searches, I got a reply and checked her profile and it hit me, a massively bright red background which was emblazoned with the Manchester United crest and ever since then we’ve messaged back and forth from matters regarding Manchester United and Television since. She’s certainly different from others on my list in that she’s not from a gaming background, but over Manchester United found at least one thing we agree on (and I think it is about the only thing :p)

@MajorLagUK / Richie P
‘The Major’ has become a mainstay of the TGS Replay show as well as hosting the Modern Warfare Mondays on the forums, he’s slowly started to become an ever present on every format, be it forum, Twitter or Podcasts and I’m not complaining because Major is never saying something that isn’t interesting or without purpose, instead delivering views that are clearly well thought and unrushed.  Richie is a breath of fresh air and is different to those in my list here and definitely comes recommended.

@Shoinan / Sinan Kubba / @SlamVanderhuge / Joe DeLia / The Game Reviews
I’m going to cheat here as, despite being brilliant individually, I was introduced to these as a pair from their Podcast show.
Podcasting really wasn’t my thing, not because I didn’t have the time or the inclination, I do genuinely enjoy other peoples opinions on games, but because the people who often host these things find themselves all over the place, losing their train of thought and leaving programmes in a state of anarchy. I’d never heard of Big Red Potion (BRP) podcast until one of my close friends, Jen (Haly) appeared on a show and I listened in and was immediately taken aback by the quality of the podcast, the themes which were stuck to (more on this in a future date) and  the sheer quality of the host, Sinan, who co-presents the show to a standard much greater than those so called ‘professional’ podcasts from professional sites. Outside of the BRP podcast Sinan is someone who will do great favours for people with very little reward, a fantastic person and a truly rewarding follow on Twitter.
The other half of the BRP podcast hosting team, Joe is the excitable,  entertaining and enthusiastic American to Sinan’s more serious, smooth hosting and as a combination I’d rate them as the best podcast hosting team I’ve heard to date by a street. Joe is always enthused by blockbuster things and with every show you listen to you feel you know him that little bit more, living vicariously through his views. He’s much the same on Twitter, always keeping you updated on the latest reviews by himself or colleagues and friends. Joe also has, bar none, my favourite Twitter avatar which earns him cool points.

@SilentHitoshura / Paul Rooney
The now infamous Paul Rooney, some may believe him to be a professional wind-up merchant but in terms of conversation over the last 12 months I don’t think I’ve had more opposing views to someone else than I have from Paul, but at the same time I would say that I enjoy these discussions more than any others. Whilst he may have different views on pretty much everything, he’s very knowledgeable and much like myself will put his views out there to be challenged. It may not always be an easy read, but with Paul, I really wouldn’t want it any other way. A really, really good guy.

@Strident / The Gamer Scene
Often described as the unsung hero of The Gamer Scene forums, he works tirelessly to inform posters of news and views as well as moderate stealthily in the background. Strident is another gaming completionist much like myself, even completing the rather fantastic Fallout 3 twice, on Xbox360 and PS3 for all 3,100 gamerpoints available  meaning he actually did Mothership Zeta twice, now if that doesn’t deserve respect I don’t know what does. Strident is always active on Twitter, often commenting on games or the industry in general, he’s even written several very interesting articles on his own site. If you’re into gaming discussions then you can do much worse than follow one of the most interesting and polite gamers I have on there.

@Strybe / Daniel Lipscombe / Video Games Writer
Of all the people on this list, I’ve followed Daniel for the least amount of time, however, in that period I have probably felt like interacting more with his re-tweets and posts than anyone else. We both share a similar love for MMA and gaming and as such he’s certainly someone whose posts I look out for daily. Daniel is a journalist for many different sites including one of my favourites, Resolution Magazine and his reviews are more often than not ‘on the money.’ Daniel is always willing to get back to you on any questions you ask him and often leaves things open for debate.

@Xantiriad / Gary Blower / Ninja Fat Pigeons
Xantiriad, or Xan as he’s often simply referred to on the many podcasts he’s appeared in is the real all rounder of the bunch and has probably appeared on as many different podcasts as I’ve had hot dinners, which should give you some idea as to his quality of opinions on gaming matters and whether he’s hosting a podcast or simply sitting in as a guest, he always has interesting things and stories to tell. His background is as a member of the UGN on the Ninja Fat Pigeons side of things (of which I’m not going to pretend to know about), but also as a senior member of TGS and often hosts their monthly ‘replay’ podcast where himself and other members of the forum discuss the merits of a game from years gone by they’ve been replaying throughout the previous month. Whilst his choice of team is questionable, his presence on Twitter most certainly isn’t. He’s a true gamer and one that I look forward to both reading and hearing the opinions of throughout 2010 and hopefully beyond.

For those that aren’t mentioned on this list, I really am sorry, it’s by no offence that you’ve been missed or that you’re not ‘as good as’ those I have mentioned, it’s just that those mentioned above are people who I have interacted with consistently throughout 2009 and  felt deserved a little shout out commendation for their quality in making Twitter, as well as other areas, even better.
There are many others I can recommend, Twitter has been a rich playground of interesting characters, opinions and even deep disagreements, there are those that don’t understand it and those who simply refuse to, to those people, if you have interests that maybe fall in line with mine then feel free to follow these people, it may just help make your 2010 as good as my 2009 was.

There are other people I could recommend who, on any other day may well have made this list for one reason or another, so I’ll give a whole bunch of others here.
@CorporalKitty, @Cr4zyChri5, @FrugalNory, @legoftime, @Neemulus, @RockStar_AV8R, @RatsoAlbion, @SamdyBrown, @Rampage198, @SirStuie, @ThiefofHearts